Just having a go at one of my band' songs - a pop-rock piece- and found
that our drummer was quite eager with the cymbals when we recorded. Which is overall good,
as it gives lots of movement to the the drum track, but given the treatment I've given to
the drums, the result is that the cymbals, especially the crash, tend to splash quite a
lot. They do it nicely, but to see if I could control how long they resonate, I've gated
the overheads with a smooth decay and the right hold and release so the splash does not
end too abruptly. It doesn't sounds half bad, but I feel the snare can become a little
less sharp at times due to the gating. It's not a big thing, but I'm tempted to leave the
gate out altogether and keep the splashes how they are. However, I wonder - is it a
regular thing to gate the overheads to contain the cymbals? Or nobody does that?

As far as possible, beyond a little HPF I leave overheads well alone. I'd rather have
honest sounding overheads with a little too exhuberant playing than have overheads that
sound as if they've been massaged in some way. 90% of the life of drums is from overheads.

Yeah, I feel the same about the overheads - I left them without gating in the end. I tend
to hipass quite a bit lately, it was a ah-ah moment as I found it does wonders with the
drums definition, rattling and unwanted room reverb.

IMHO if you hi-pass your overheads, then they become really just cymbal mics. So now you
can think of them that way at least. So if you are hearing too much cymbal then bring them
down. If you can't ride this fast enough, then start using a compressor with a side chain
from the vocal, or something you want to hear over the cymbals. I am hearing lots of
classic reference tracks where the drummer will hit a crash and when the vocals come back
in the crash has nicely gotten out of the way in an unnatural, yet pleasing musical way.
Sounds like a medium slow attack, and really long (infinite) release.

Quote DC-Choppah:IMHO if you
hi-pass your overheads, then they become really just cymbal mics.

It depends how high you set the cut-off. For
rock/metal I may be up in the 500-600Hz region, which does makes the overheads all but
cymbal mic's, but for jazz, indie-pop I may just roll off under 80Hz. Invariably, if you
have a close kick mic then it is likely that you'll need to clean up the low end of the
overheads to let it do its job.

Very occasionally I've discarded the overhead tracks completely with a heavy cymbal
hitter. As a drummer I learned that the cymbals get everywhere if you don't play them in a
controlled way so the cymbals I use probably sound too quiet in the room but they work
fine when mic'ed up.